Sid Meier's Civilization V

UPC: 710425318177

Platform: IBM PC Compatible

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Firaxis Games

Category: Strategy

Style(s): Empire-Building

Synopsis: The fifth original release in the quintessential computer game series, Sid Meier's Civilization V introduces new concepts and conditions to the classic turn-based strategy play, along with presentational and computational refinements to take advantage of contemporary PC capabilities. The most prominent change is that maps are broken down on a hexagonal grid, instead of the square tiles of earlier editions. Multiple military units no longer stack on a single tile. The hex grid allows for more natural flow of terrain, and armies maneuver realistically across it. With significance beyond their size or stature, the new "City States" affect play as well, by influencing diplomacy and other interactions between larger nations. Civ V also brings back the series' panel of interactive advisors, available to provide user help as well as departmentally informed opinions on all in-game decisions. For interaction with actual human players, a built-in "Community Hub" allows internet-connected gamers to trade scenarios, compare achievements, and set up multiplayer bouts. In Sid Meier's Civilization games, the player becomes the enduring leader of a small tribe of people, beginning at the dawn of history and guiding them through the ages, to develop into a mighty nation or even a world-dominating empire. Starting with only stone-age tools and weapons, the tribe of settlers founds the nation's first city. Provided ample food and protection, this city will grow large enough to produce more settlers, who can expand the nation by establishing additional cities. As all the great nations of the world grow to cover the continents, the borders between them can become places of considerable conflict. Players can fend off attacks and capture new territory from rival nations through diplomacy, warfare, and popular influence. By researching different technologies, the player's nation gains the ability to construct related facilities, weapons, and social institutions, which in turn can allow for further technological, territorial, and cultural expansion. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Package Contents: Tech Tree Chart

Controls: Mouse, Keyboard

Civ 5 is a bona fide Sid Meier's Civilization game, worthy of the series' title and heritage. It is also the farthest removed, most different game from its predecessors yet. It is most different not because of any particular rule change or graphical enhancement, but because of the way it feels to play it, in its natural, turn-by-turn flow. Civilization 5 is as intricate and deep as any earlier game in the series, but the interface and pacing make it easy to cruise across the surface, and miss a lot of that depth. Compared to its predecessors, Civilization 5 is more about making abstract choices than it is about manipulating interrelated machinations. Many of the game's most interesting choices are in the new Social Policies system. By earning these advancements, and the civilization-wide bonuses they bestow, players develop their empires in a manner akin to a fantasy role-player leveling up a character. Policies are acquired with culture points, which act as XP in the analogy. The player eventually chooses from the same spectrum of enhancements found in earlier Civilization games, but in Civ 5, it feels these bonuses are imparted from the top down, instead of cultivated from the bottom up. A few influential alterations to in-game logistics also contribute to this effect; to make playing Civ 5 feel more simple, even if no less strategically sophisticated. Units move in six directions instead of eight, and they cannot share a tile. This makes army mobilization more cumbersome, but also easier to see and assess at any given point. The new "embark" ability affects unit movement at least as radically as the hex-tile maps, by eliminating the need for plan-ahead ship-building to send settlers or soldiers overseas. Again, the player is freed from long-term coordination to focus on in-the-moment management. In its presentation, as well, Civilization 5 strays from predecessors not in its basic concepts or underlying complexity, but in how it handles along the way. The clean, art deco interface is geared toward managerial execution at an empire-wide level. The overall aesthetic is pleasant, with easy-to-read menus and smooth animations on a contemporary computer. The sound is better than adequate, although Civ 4 fans may miss the restrained brilliance of Jeff Briggs' themed compositions, if not the avuncular authority of Leonard Nimoy's new-tech recitations. True to its title, Sid Meier's Civilization 5 provides fans and newcomers alike with all the expected detail, control, and complexity of context they'll need to steer their own epic retellings of human history. Yet in any epic, it is the journey, not the destination, that defines the experience. In each new session of play, Civ 5 travels down the series' familiar roads of scientific progress, military conquest, cultural dominance, and the pursuit of happiness, but it does so in a luxury sedan with built-in GPS, rather than following road signs in a sturdy old pick-up. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

the game requires Mouse, Keyboard.